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Honiton Hippo collage unveiled at Honiton Station

Published on: 
14 December 2023

The artwork was officially unveiled at Honiton Station by the Mayor of Honiton, Councillor Helen Hurford.

In a project led by the Friends of Honiton Station, attractive new artwork has been installed on the inside of the station’s footbridge. The project is the brainchild of Friends’ member, East Devon and Honiton Town Councillor Jenny Brown.

The footbridge artwork collage was originally created as part of THG's Honiton Hippo project during workshops held as part of the national Wild Escape Project led by the Art Fund in partnership with Honiton Primary School, Allhallows Museum and Blackdown Hills National Landscape.

Over the course of nine workshops led by the artist Alistair Lambert, 28 pupils from Years 4 and 5 at Honiton Primary took inspiration from the Allhallows Museum's collection of hippo fossils, THG’s exhibition 'Paradise Found' and the nature surrounding the Blackdown Hills to create the collage.

The national Wild Escape campaign led by the Art Fund was inspired by Sir David Attenborough's 'Wild Isles' series. Primary school children aged between 7 and 11 were invited to be find a favourite animal in their local museum and be inspired to create an artwork. 

Local families also created animals to contribute to the artwork during workshops at the gallery and in the St. Paul’s area of Honiton over the Easter holidays.

The £6,700 project was made possible thanks to funding from South Western Railway, Honiton Town Council and grants organised by the Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership from CrossCountry Trains and the Community Rail Development Fund, a joint initiative of the Department for Transport and the Community Rail Network.